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10 Best Rob Reiner Movies

Rob Reiner directing a sceneImage by Everett Collection

By Shawn S. Lealos Published 50 minutes ago

Shawn S. Lealos is an entertainment writer who is a voting member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. He has written for Screen Rant, CBR, ComicBook, The Direct, The Sportster, Chud, 411mania, Renegade Cinema, Yahoo Movies, and many more.

Shawn has a bachelor's degree in professional writing and a minor in film studies from the University of Oklahoma. He also has won numerous awards, including several Columbia Gold Circle Awards and an SPJ honor. He also wrote Dollar Deal: The Story of the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers, the first official book about the Dollar Baby film program. Shawn is also currently writing his first fiction novel under a pen name, based in the fantasy genre.

To learn more, visit his website at shawnlealos.net.

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Rob Reiner was one of the best directors in Hollywood throughout the 80s and 90s, churning out hit movies in a variety of genres with some of the world's biggest stars. Reiner got his start as an actor, and an entire generation knew him from his role as Mike "Meathead" Stivic on All in the Family before moving on to directing.

Rob Reiner died on December 14, 2025, at 78, and he left behind a legacy of movies that no one will ever touch. Reiner mastered everything from mockumentaries to rom-coms and military dramas to coming-of-age stories and fantasy masterpieces. While he never won an Oscar for directing, Rob Reiner told the stories that defined an entire generation.

Rumor Has It... (2005)

Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Costner as Sarah Huttinger and Beau Burroughs in Rumor Has It

In 2005, Rob Reiner tried his hand at another romantic comedy, this one starring Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Costner, called Rumor Has It... Aniston is Sarah, a newspaper writer who returns home for her younger sister Annie's (Mena Suvari) wedding, accompanied by her own fiancé, played by Mark Ruffalo.

When Sarah hears her grandmother mention that her mom ran away a week before her wedding, Sarah realizes that she might not know the identity of her biological father. She then sets out to meet the man who might be her biological father, a wealthy Silicon Valley tech expert named Beau (Kevin Costner), who also slept with her grandmother.

He wasn't her father, but what resulted was Beau sleeping with Sarah, the third generation of women in this family. Critics didn't highly regard the movie, but Reiner did some interesting things by blending ideas from the movie The Graduate into this story, and it had the same good performances one would expect from a Reiner film.

Ghosts Of Mississippi (1996)

The Ghosts Of Mississippi movie poster

In 1996, Rob Reiner took on a courtroom drama that had a cast that included Alec Baldwin, James Woods, and Whoopi Goldberg. The film is based on the real-life 1994 trial of a white supremacist named Byron De La Beckwith, who was accused of killing a civil rights activist named Medgar Evers in 1963.

Whoopi Goldberg plays Myrlie Evers, the widow of the murdered man, and James Woods plays the killer, who was acquitted twice in hung juries in the 1960s. It took 25 years before Evers was finally able to pull together enough evidence to help convict the man. Alec Baldwin is the man who agrees to help try the case.

Both Goldberg and Woods were praised for their performances, with Woods earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

The Sure Thing (1985)

John Cusack in the pool as Gib with Nicollette Sheridan looking at him in The Sure Thing

Rob Reiner's second movie of his career, following his cult favorite This is Spinal Tap, was a basic romantic comedy called The Sure Thing. The movie stars John Cusack in an early rom-com role as Gib Gibson, a high school senior who is about to go to college and is struggling in the dating game.

He meets a young woman at college named Alison (Daphne Zuniga), but can't seem to win her over. His best friend, who went to UCLA, asks Gib to fly out, and he will hook him up with a "Sure Thing." Nicollette Sheridan plays the unnamed "Sure Thing," but Gib can't stop thinking about Alison, and he has a tough decision to make.

This was Reiner's first attempt at a rom-com, and while he made several over his career that were better, there was still something sweet about this movie that made it feel like a modern-day It Happened One Night. Critics praised its look at teenage romance without sexualizing it in an era where sex was the norm.

The American President (1995)

Michael Douglas President Andrew Shepherd talking to Annette Bening as Sydney in The American President

Ten years after making a rom-com directed squarely at teenagers in The Sure Thing, Reiner went in the opposite direction with his movie, The American President. This film starred Michael Douglas as U.S. President Andrew Shepherd, a widower who is running for re-election. However, his plans are thrown into disarray when he falls for a lobbyist.

Annette Bening plays the lobbyist, and this was a fun rom-com that flips things on their head. Douglas was 51 when the movie was released, while Bening was 37, and in an era where rom-coms centered on younger romantic leads, this was a nice film directed directly at adult crowds, a nice change of pace.

The American President was a small box office success for Reiner, and it went on to earn an Oscar nomination for its score. However, its most significant legacy was that it led writer Aaron Sorkin to create his television drama The West Wing, with many of the same ideals that he created with the President in this film.

Misery (1990)

Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes in Misery

Rob Reiner directed two Stephen King movies, and his second one was one of the only King films to win an Oscar. In 1990, Reiner directed the King movie, Misery, which was based on King's frustrations with how fans can try to hijack an author's career and force him to only write what they want to read.

He took it to the extreme, with author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) being involved in an auto accident, only to be saved by his biggest fan, Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates). However, Annie becomes obsessed and refuses to allow him to leave until he rewrites his latest book to her specifications, torturing him when he refuses.

Bates pulled off a rare accomplishment when she won an Oscar for her portrayal of Annie Wilkes, something that doesn't happen often in horror movies. Reiner also received great praise when Stephen King said he felt the movie Misery was even better than his novel.

This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

The band on stage in This is Spinal Tap

It seems almost hard to believe that This is Spinal Tap was a debut film for a brand-new movie director. Rob Reiner had made his name as an actor, with his most significant role coming on the Norman Lear television series All in the Family. However, when he directed his first film, he made an interesting decision.

Reiner decided to make a mockumentary, where he starred as a man interviewing a famous heavy metal band called Spinal Tap, following them on tour and showing the crazy events that took place in their lives. Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer starred as the band members and improvised most of their lines.

This is Spinal Tap remains one of the most beloved rock and roll movies ever made, and one of the best mockumentaries of all time. It received a Criterion Collection release, helped launch Christopher Guest's mockumentary career, and even had a sequel that came out in 2025, Rob Reiner's final movie as a director.

Stand By Me (1986)

The 4 kids in Stand by Me

In 1986, Rob Reiner directed his first of two Stephen King movies, and only die-hard King fans even knew it was based on one of his stories. Based on the novella The Body from Different Seasons, Stand By Me was the first-ever Stephen King movie that wasn't a horror story. Instead, this was a touching coming-of-age drama.

The four young stars all became household names, with Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell as four pre-teen friends who hear there is a dead body in the woods and set out to see it. Along the way, they face their own morality and come back completely changed in ways they never expected.

There have been more successful King non-horror films, with The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile as the best examples. However, Stand By Me stands alongside those films as one of the best King movies ever made, and the performances that Rob Reiner pulled from these kids were simply perfection.

A Few Good Men (1992)

Jack Nicholson as Colonel Nathan R. Jessep in A Few Good Men

In 1992, Rob Reiner directed one of the best non-war military movies and courtroom dramas of all time. The movie starred a young Tom Cruise as an attorney tasked with representing two men who are accused of murder as they face a court-martial. Demi Moore co-stars as a second attorney, who believes something else happened.

Jack Nicholson delivered an intense performance as Colonel Nathan R. Jessep, the cruel base commander who breaks under testimony when he admits ordering a Code Red, where he ordered the two accused men to exact violent extrajudicial punishment on the soldier who died. That scene remains one of the best in courtroom drama history.

A Few Good Men was a monster success at the box office and went on to earn Jack Nicholson an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, while Reiner shared in an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan as Harry and Sally in When Harry Met Sally

Rob Reiner directed what many consider to be the greatest romantic comedy ever made. When Harry Met Sally stars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan as the two titular characters. This is a comedy about two very close friends, and it breaks down how hard it is for a man and woman to be only friends, especially when there is some attraction.

This movie has some of the most iconic scenes in rom-com history, with the one scene where Meg Ryan fakes an orgasm while sitting in a restaurant, where everyone can hear, one of the most repeated gags in any romantic comedy. This was one of the movies that helped Meg Ryan overtake Julia Roberts as the Queen of the Rom-Com.

The movie was a box office success and ended up earning Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. In 2022, the Library of Congress added When Harry Met Sally to the National Film Registry.

The Princess Bride (1987)

Cary Elwes and Robin Wright as Westley and Princess Buttercup in The Princess Bride

The best Rob Reiner movie ever made arrived in 1987 with the fantasy romantic comedy The Princess Bride. The film, written by William Goldman, is book-ended with a grandfather reading the story to his sick grandson. It follows a farmhand named Westley who is in love with a young woman named Buttercup.

He sets off to find fortune overseas, but when he is presumed dead in an attack by Dread Pirate Roberts, she ends up forcibly betrothed to Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon). The night before her wedding, a Sicilian criminal named Vizzini (Wallace Shawn) and his henchmen kidnap her. This brings a mysterious pirate to try to save her.

This movie has everything fantasy fans could want. It has great dialogue from names like Mandy Patinkin and Cary Elwes, a fun performance by Andre the Giant, and a sweet love story. It is a massive cult favorite and was added to the National Film Registry in 2016 by the Library of Congress. All things considered, it's Rob Reiner's masterpiece.

Movies

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